Teaching Brazilian folklore through videogames: a way to

Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
Teaching Brazilian folklore through videogames: a way to
motivate students
Leonardo F. B. S. Carvalho,
Helmut Prendinger
Augusto Timm, Igor C. Moura
National
Institute
of
Informatics,
Tokyo,
Institute of Informatics, Federal
Dante A. C. Barone,
Japan
University
of Rio Grande do Sul, RS,
Magda Bercht
Brazil
[email protected]
Graduate Program of Informatics in
[email protected],
Education, Federal University of Rio
[email protected]
Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil
[email protected],
{barone, bercht }@inf.ufrgs.br
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the development of a game centered on
mythical characters of Brazilian folklore in order to disclose these
characters and tales to students, improving their knowledge in
regard to this theme and enhancing their value for a neglected part
of Brazilian culture. To appeal to students we have instilled the
design of the game with motivational techniques and concepts
aimed to instructional materials as well as to videogames. By
combining these two aspects our goal is to contribute to bring to
classrooms a common and appealing technology of students’ daily
lives that is still seen with some stigma by some educators. At the
same time, we will be providing students with an attractive
environment that will keep their attention and engagement while
pushes them forward to explore it further and teaches them about
a subject that according to their teachers is short of learning
materials of any kind.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
J.4 [Computer Applications]: Social and Behavioral Sciences –
psychology, sociology.
General Terms
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors.
Keywords
Brazilian folklore, Videogames, Learning, Motivation.
1. INTRODUCTION
For many years, Brazilian schools, especially High Schools, have
been seen (or even expected) by the population as employing
methodologies and presenting contents that have the only goal of
enabling students to ingress on superior education [29][34].
Naturally, we recognize the importance of this goal and it is not
our intention to disqualify such efforts in any way. However, one
must agree that by over focusing this goal schools have
approached mostly theoretical subjects, with few subjects tackling
the country’s cultural diversity or more practical aspects [29][34].
The work shown on this paper brings a contribution for a more
diverse cultural curriculum within schools, as it takes advantage
of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to
serve as a medium to teach students about the myths of Brazilian
Folklore and, at the same time, enhance their motivation towards
the learning of this subject.
In fact, the idea of “improving student’s motivation” for classes
was the starting point for this research, as it was first brought
together by the realization that teachers’ complains about the lack
of motivation of students for learning a subject or even an entire
curriculum. This characteristics are very often found in academic
literature [4][6][35][36].
In understanding that, we started to look for ways to improve
students’ motivation for classes at the same time that we teach
them a subject. By considering the current generation of students’
familiarity and eagerness to interact with ICTs we believed that
that might be a suitable path to achieve those goals. Two concepts
that, after considerations and discussions with teachers and
researches about technologies and teaching topics, have led us to
develop a videogame for teaching students about the myths of
Brazilian folklore, which we call Folclórica.
The following sections discuss the concepts underlining the
development of this game and provide a deeper comprehension of
our choices. For this reason we start on Section 2 by showing the
existing links between motivation and learning, while doing the
same on Section 3 for the existing relationships between ICTs,
videogames and learning. Section 4 will discuss about our target
audience and the importance to bring the theme of Brazilian
folklore to them, while Section 5 will discuss how the concepts
shown on the previous sections were put together in the
development of the game, focusing on its first level as a clearer
example. Section 6 will also present our methods for evaluations
and our findings from our first contact with the students. At last,
Section 7 will present our final conclusions and Section 8 our
acknowledgements.
2. MOTIVATION VS LEARNING
As we stated in the previous section, the matter of teachers’
complains about their students’ lack of motivation in classrooms
was the first step in bringing this work together.
When studying about the ways in which motivation may affect
learning, we took notice of how often it was to find in literature
author’s statements regarding teachers’ complaints about the lack
of motivation of their students or even transcribed excerpts of this
type of complaint.
385
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
In truth, the matter has been boosted to one of the most tackled
within researches dealing with learning and motivation during the
last decades, with researches being conducted under the most
varying points of view and assumptions, such as the works of
Boruchovitch et al. [4], Bzuneck [6], Steinmayr and Spinath [36]
and Schunk, Printrich and Meece [35]. Interestingly enough, in
spite of their own particular perspectives about the matter, all
consulted authors agree on the pivotal role played by motivation
on learning processes, as it directly affects one’s desires and
whishes in unique ways.
That last statement unwilling highlights a very important aspect of
the study of motivation: there is no single definition for the
concept of motivation or neither a complete list of all the existing
factors that might have influence on one’s motivation. A
reasonable account since each person has his/hers own set of
factors that establish how they best learn or what can interfere
with this process [17].
The inexistence of a complete list of factors that affects one’s
motivation is not to say that there are no accounts of them at all.
Each different study about motivation will present its own
compilation of factors that might account for better or lack of
motivation in respect to the scope of the research. This makes
possible to highlight those of higher frequency. From these, we
will delve on two of them: the teaching of subjects far removed
from the daily lives of the students and the gap between the more
traditional lecture/test teaching model that is still strong in most
schools and the new needs of the students due to the rise of ICTs.
More precisely, as most schools have misused time in adapting to
more dynamic teaching methods that would better reflect the
current paradigm of our society these institutions keep favoring a
lecture/test model of teaching, which focus on the transmission of
knowledge to static students [13][5]. However, this model grants
these learns with few opportunities to interpret and analyze the
problems placed before them, in addition to, as of today, be in
stark contrast with our society’s current paradigm [10][5][10]. A
paradigm known as Information Society (IS) that is marked by the
intense and interchangeable interaction with the ICTs and by the
ever expanding flux of information they provide, which virtually
demolishes geographical barriers of time and space [10].
Adding to that matter, when reaching their final mandatory years
of education, students of Brazilian schools have been known to be
tutored almost exclusively to succeed to ingress on higher level
education and labor market. This leads schools to abstain
themselves of better diversified curriculums and to the limitation
of career paths students may follow in their future [39][29].
A first gateway to change that may have come from the set of
mandatory curricular topics established by the Brazilian
government in 2011. Such topics do not need to be taught strictly
as disciplines and include themes such as the culture and history
of African-Brazilian and Indigenous people [29]. Two topics that
make for a great deal of the pillars of the mythology of Brazilian
folklore as is show by the works of Cascudo [9] and that, in turn,
assure a room for the theme of our game within classrooms.
3. ICTS, VIDEOGAMES AND LEARNING
ICTs are a part of our lives today. Constantly, we share our space
with computers, smartphones, videogames and tons of other
technological devices meant for the most varying purposes. They
enable our society to work today in such ways that we have
largely become dependent of these technologies. They have also
been eagerly accepted by the younger generations who embraced
their capability to provide virtual environments vastly rich on
information and on its sources [28].
Such environments demand from their users the employment of
inductive reasoning in order to gather information. At the same
time, they provide them with immediate opportunities to put this
information to practice and transform it to knowledge. Traits that
can be argued to be at the very core of videogames and that can be
further enhanced by the often reward of the users’ efforts and
successes [31][37].
In addition, countless combinations of virtual worlds and
situations can be designed within videogames, making them more
than capable to attract the attention and commitment of learners
by providing them opportunities to get in contact and experience
with all different sorts of subjects and tasks [37].
This not only assures videogames a place in education as it also
makes possible for us to develop a game dealing with Brazilian
folklore. A prospect that was met with enthusiasm by the teachers
of our target audience, who pointed that this meets the interest of
their students by bringing closer to classrooms an ICT common to
their daily lives. In turn, this gives the students something familiar
and that they can relate to, feeding their motivation and enhancing
their desire to persevere and succeed in the tasks provided to
them, while granting them with a sense of direction and purpose
that is highly desired in learners [37].
3.1 Learning through videogames
Educational videogames are not a new type of media or concept.
Today, one might find a fair variety of games with this kind of
purpose under different labels, such as Serious Games or Digital
Game Based Learning (DBGL). At the core, all intend to use the
environment and interactivity provided by videogames as means
to disclose information, simulate situations or assist the practice
of skills [12][1][37].
There are several examples of such games concerning varying
areas of knowledge, such as medicine, engineering, rescue
training and military. An interesting older example of this is a
PlayStation 1 game from them 1990’s focused on reinforcing
students’ learning [31]. The idea was simple, if a game is 50%
instructional and 50% fun, playing it for at least 06 hours during
weekends would add 03 hours of instruction to these learners. A
concept put to test in over 400 school districts in USA and found
out a 25% increase on the linguistic capabilities on the students’
who played the game against those who did not, and an additional
50% increase on their skills for solving mathematical problems
[31].
Such approach appeals to the idea of making educational games as
much enjoyable as entertainment games, in order to ensure that
students will in fact choose to play them. A similar background is
taken by Click Health, responsible for making games to aid kids
with health problems such as diabetes or asthma that, through
rigorous clinic testing, found out a 77% drop on the number of
medical visits and emergency rooms’ hospitalizations on the
group of players in contrast with their control groups [31].
However, few organizations have made more extensive use of
educational games than the United States Army. One of the true
pioneers on the use of these media, the army has employed both
regular commercial games, to teach youths the basic principles
386
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
and concepts they need to know before training in expensive
simulators, as well as developing and largely distributing games
of their own, which are made available at regular stores and that
are part of their training program [31]. Games such as America's
Army: Proving Grounds released at 2013 as part of US Army’s
recruiting program.
In spite of being viewed with some stigma by some educators
[37], videogames are in fact able to achieve a series of
instructional feats, due to their ability to create a space for
immersive mentoring that results from the combination of
different sets of digital learning practices into an attractive
interface that students can explore and tinker with in order to
gradually progress over time [24].
Meanwhile, the transformation of the experience concerns how
one shapes and connects what has been experimented with what
he or she knows. In this, the reflective observation concerns
one’s ability to observe an experimentation being performed by
another, and to reflect upon what has been seen in order to
understand it. The active experimentation goes the other way
around that as it relies on one’s execution of the task by
him/herself as a way to understand the experience and its results.
As ELT is based on experimentation it takes benefit from the
strong sense of immersion found in videogames, which has a large
share of responsibility for the success of the ELT among the
media, as the theory needs a “reality” in which learners can
experiment on. The concept of immersion also accounts for a
large share of the maintenance of one’s attention and interest to
the task at hand, thus contributing to the enhancement of one’s
motivation, as it pushes them towards interacting with the game
environment and solve the tasks placed before them in order to
advance and explore that environment even further [24][12][1].
That way, learning is a natural consequence of experimentation,
which in turn might result in knowledge. Such view meets the
definition of Kolb [22] and Kolb and Kolb [23] Experiential
Learning Theory – ELT, a theory that supports that learning is a
process that consists of one’s own lived experience and of its
shaping into knowledge in response to data gathered from the
experience and to its connection to one’s previous experiences.
3.2 Imbuing motivation in videogames
The theory is so well linked to the way learning occurs in
videogames that 2010’s editor of the journal Simulation & gaming
2010 D. Crookall has gone as far as stat that it defines the
foundation of best practices for players to succeed in such
environments [12].
In the last paragraph of the previous section we brought up a
series of traits that are connected to the field of Affective
Computation [33][14], which is a result of our attempts to build
an environment that is meant to act as a learning object to
motivate students to interact with it and learn from such
interaction.
This is because ELT not only defines learning in regards to
experimentation but also as a cyclic and non-stopping process in
which the learner (or, in this case, the player) is continuously
building knowledge through the gather and transformation of data
from lived experiences. This is just another way to say that one is
constantly creating, testing and reformulating hypothesis until he
or she can find a solution to the task at hand.
Such goal was established due to the very positive effects that
motivation has in learning. Students who are properly motivated
for a task place more dedication on it and might even engage it for
pure joy instead of a feeling of obligation. On the other hand, the
lack of motivation can instill severe complications to the learning
of students, hindering their desires to employ any effort to their
tasks.
Figure 1 depicts this cycle and its formal division into the
grasping of the experience, further divided into the concrete
experimentation and the abstract conceptualization; and the
transformation of experience, consisting on the active
experimentation and the reflective observation.
This is a matter of concern due to the fact that a student is
essentially an agent that performs tasks, most of which have a
cognitive nature and are meant to highlight the student’s
competencies such as attention; concentration; processing,
development and integration of information; reasoning and
problem solving [33].
Consequently, motivation has power to affect students by
promoting their proactive and self-engagement to classroom tasks
and to the learning process as a whole, prompting them to choose
their own courses of action and put them in practice in order to
fulfill such tasks and, therefore, their own needs [5]. Severe lack
of motivation in students can in extreme cases lead to likewise
intense consequences, such as deprive them to place any effort to
take part on the learning process, decline going to classes or even
school evasion. Hence, it is important that schools seek to
improve the motivation to learn in all their students and that they
aid those with problems of this nature to overcome them [5].
Figure 1 ELT cycle. Source: Kolb e Kolb [23].
As the name suggests the grasping of the experience deals with
one’s acquisition and comprehension of the experience. It occurs
through the so called concrete experimentation, in which one
deals with the perceivable aspects of the real or virtual world one
is immersed in and that can be felt through the use of the five
senses. This is complemented by the abstract conceptualization
that regards the interpretation of this reality by means of
reasoning, analysis, or systematic planning.
In understanding that, we looked for ways to enhance students’
motivation within our game due to its purpose of acting as a
learning object for a particular teaching topic. An approach that
targets to make such game an enjoyable experience that can lead
students to learn about its theme, instead of be labelled by them
as, yet, another “boring” educative game.
Hence, the development stages of the game have been underlined
by a series of concepts and guidelines when electing its design,
challenges, game plot, dialogs and characters’ appearance that
387
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
focus on keeping the game as a whole interesting to players,
maintaining their attention and level of fun in order to make them
absorb the subject barely even noticing.
The first of these are Malone [26] and Malone and Lepper [27]
heuristics for the design of motivational games. In spite of being
conceived during the 80’s these guidelines are still largely used
today in reason of their commitment to imbue motivation in
videogames by balancing their levels of Challenge, Fantasy,
Curiosity and Control in respect to their target audience.
While the ELT [22][23] will provide students a practical learning
environment, the guidelines [26][27] will be tasked to make it a
pleasant experience, something that we felt the need to verify if
would be in fact achieved, but that the guidelines themselves
provided no means to. To be able to do so, we resort to Keller
[20][21]’s ARCS motivational design model.
The model that takes its name from the initials of the four
components it consists of: Attention, Relevance, Confidence and
Satisfaction; is tied by us to Malone [26] and Malone and Lepper
[27] in order to check if we were able to make an environment
that motivates students.
Within our understanding, ARCS’ Attention, i.e. the easiness of
players’ engagement and response to the game environment is
closely related to the guideline of Challenge as it gives shape to
the teachings subjects of the environment and stimulates students
to reflect upon them. It also has some attachment to Fantasy as
both it and Attention benefit from imagination.
Relevance, which aids players to link new information to what
they already know, also takes benefit in Challenge as it forces
players to reflect upon what they are experiencing. However it has
even stronger ties to Curiosity as it is what makes players wonder
and experiment with the game mechanics and plot.
Confidence and its role of nourishing students with good
expectations of performance appears equally related to Curiosity,
which will build up on players’ expectations; Challenge, which
will set what the players’ believe they can accomplish with their
skills; and Control, which will set a limit to the number of
attainable action that players might choose from and to the
interferences that might fall upon them.
Satisfaction results from students putting in practice what they
have just learned. While a more traditional teaching setting might
restrict satisfaction to the late stages of the learning process, a
game environment allows Satisfaction to occur simultaneously to
players’ progress on it, with emphasis on moments such as the
solving of a particular hard puzzle or level advance. Satisfaction
seems better linked to the guideline of Control due to the
limitations it places on the number of viable solutions for the
game’s tasks and to the guideline of Fantasy, which gives
meaning to these tasks. Moreover, the use of external motivators,
such as rewards and other positive feedbacks [32] can also play a
role on Satisfaction as they act as praise to the players’ efforts
(Challenge).
3.3 Games with similar backgrounds
Videogames that portray elements of Brazilian folklore are
somewhat a recent phenomenon. Such games do not necessarily
take a turn towards serious games, but simply take advantage of
the fantastic settings of these legends to create an attractive game
environment with elements that are not commonly seen.
Nevertheless, such initiatives are taken by groups of Brazilian
game developers who, though not in contact with each other,
share the idea to bring a new perspective to these myths and
disclose them to a public that, otherwise, might even ever come to
known them.
Among such games we can name a few, like Aritana and the
Harpy’s Feather, a game released on the second semester of 2014
for the Steam1 game distribution platform [16]. In it, the player
controls an Indian named Aritana who must face challenges and
characters connected to Native-Brazilian folklore such as the
Mapinguari, a carnivorous gigantic manlike creature, covered in
fur and with a distinct bad smell and a huge mouth on its belly.
Along the game, the player is faced with creatures such as the
above and other elements of Brazilian folklore and culture (such
as replacing game coins by seeds of guarana) while trying the
retrieve the harpy’s feather of the game title, the last ingredient
needed to make a potion to save the life of the leader of Aritana’s
tribe [16].
A similar approach is found on the in-development game Folklore
Warriors (Guerreiros Folclóricos) from Unique Entretenimento
Digital [19], which makes use of the characters of Brazilian
folklore due to the fantastical potential they display as game
characters instead of any particular teaching goals. General
aspects of the game plot involve it being set in another world that
is home to these characters, like in our own game, and placing the
Saci as the main villain who controls a horde of zombielike
creatures known as Dried-bodies (Corpos-Secos). The game
seems to be yet on its character development stages and most of
its game plot and mechanics remains open [19], yet its game plot
and election of characters seems, thus far, to be the one closest to
our own work for this research, which, can be found in Carvalho,
Barone and Bercht [7] and [8].
While these games have no distinct educational approach this is
not the case of the game Xilo, a currently in-development game of
the Kaipora Digital game house that focus on characters of
Brazilian folklore that are mainly common to the northeast part of
the country [38].
More than an entertainment purpose, Xilo has the goal to present
the culture of this part of Brazil to a broader audience, enhancing
their knowledge about this subject and thus, fits our discussion of
Serious Games and DGBL at the start of section 3.1. The game’s
visual identity also suits its setting, as the main character Biliu is
duly fitted with the clothes of Cangaço as he explores the game
world, collects different xylographs along his way (hence, the
name of the game and its art style) and meets the Saci and a
number of other characters of Brazilian folklore [38].
In common with Xilo our own game, Folclórica, also aims to
make its theme know to a broader audience, but has a completely
different feel to it in what concerns, graphics, mechanics and
game plot, as we will be detailing next.
4. TARGET AUDIENCE AND
RELEVANCE OF THE GAME’S SUBJECT
The game we are developing to teach students about the myths of
Brazilian Folklore is called “Folclórica” and consists of a 2D
1
388
For more information see http://store.steampowered.com/.
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
single player platform2/puzzle3 game. The game is initially being
developed consisting of three levels representing three of the five
geographic regions of the country. There are plans to add the two
reaming regions as game levels in the future
When this proposal was first discussed with teachers of the
students selected as target audience they were enthusiastic about
the idea, due to, in their own accord, they seeing the teaching of
national myths in schools as a matter that contributes to one’s
valuing of the Brazilian culture. Especially when the students
display a clear deal more of knowledge and care for myths and
legends of other cultures than of their own.
In fact, something that has called our attention when discussing
the selection of this subject with teachers from our target audience
is that, according to them, there is a lacking of material about this
subject, be it books, videos or any form of media. A fact that
makes the choice to develop a game that deals with this subject all
the more interesting as it adds to the appreciation of the cultural
diversity of our society.
As for the students taking part in the research, the target audience
consists of two classes of the last year of primary teaching from
the Colégio de Aplicação of the Federal University of Rio Grande
do Sul ranging in age from 13 to 15 years old. One of the classes
will assume the role of control group and the other the role of case
study group. All students taking part in the research have
consented to do so and signed papers in accordance to the
requirements of the Ethics Committee overseeing their institution.
These documents were also signed by their parents or legal
guardians.
Within those classes, Folclórica will be used as part of the
subjects of Literature of the Portuguese Language discipline. A
befitting election of discipline to conduct such research as
Fernandes [15] reminds us that the discipline of Portuguese
Language and Literature must aim to achieve equity, aiding in the
prevention of racism and intolerance by meeting the Curriculum
Guidelines for the Education of Racial-Ethnic Relations, which
seeks the recognition and value of the identity, history, culture
and equal appreciation of the different roots of Brazilian culture,
such as the African, Indigenous, European and Asian[15][2].
In that sense, by discussing these myths in classrooms we are not
just ensuring their stories to be known, which is in itself very
important as they are a part of our culture that is often neglected,
but we are also setting a viable way to challenge prejudices and a
series of stereotypical representations [25].
Moreover, doing so potentially aids the rescue and enhancing of
self-esteem of these cultures, especially the African and
Indigenous ones, which have a much diminished space in classes
in comparison to the European culture, which is made aware to
students not only through history books and lessons as well as
several activities connected to the reading of classical or
contemporary stories [25][15]. Different to Brazilian folklore such
2
Platform games are the ones in which the player must jump
through different types and levels of platforms in order to
advance within the game.
3
Puzzles games are grounded on the solving of logical challenges
or riddles that must be solved so one can advance through the
game.
materials are found in abundance and are easily accessible
through fairytales, Greek myths and many others.
Perhaps one of the reasons that makes such materials preferred by
teachers is that there is no risk in incurring in the anger of parents
or other educators, as the religious aspects they deal with are no
longer in practice by any current civilization. In what regards the
contemporary society they are myths, which is not the case should
a teacher approach some aspects of Brazilian culture of African,
Indigenous or even European roots [15].
In any case, such discussions do have merit. By knowing such
cultures students can reflect on their stories and characteristics,
establishing connections with different aspects of our society,
such as current habits, vocabularies or celebrations and in that,
understand how they are connected with themselves and their
lives, giving them a sense of being in some way a part of it [15].
5. THE GAME
As stated on the previous section, Folclórica is a 2D single player
platform/puzzle game whose levels draws strong inspiration from
real geographic levels of Brazil and places the student in contact
with different myths of Brazilian culture while he or she explores
its environment. The game was developed using the Unity 3D
Game Engine4 and the C# programming language.
The first concept to this game was shown in Carvalho, Barone and
Bercht [7] and was further developed in Carvalho, Barone and
Bercht [8], with this paper being thus another step towards the
conclusion of this research. In that sense, in order to understand
how the environment we created can impact on learners’
performance and motivation it is necessary to comprehend how
the concepts shown in Section 3 fit within the development
process our game, which is precisely what we discuss next.
5.1 The game plot
The main character of our game is a kid, whose gender will be
chosen by the player and who will have a sibling of the opposite
gender. The game’s opening, presents the kid playing a game on
his smartphone while going back home with his sibling. The kid’s
game figures mythical characters of other cultures, whose
characteristics and abilities are praised by him.
Meanwhile, he is constantly being interrupted by newsfeeds of
strange disappearances and other occurrences in Brazil, which
different bystanders claim to be the work of different creatures of
Brazilian’s folklore. With most of the said names unknown to the
kid he complains that it would be more interesting if that was in
fact the work of some of the foreign myths of his game.
In a moment of distraction his sibling in taken away by the Cuca,
who was looking for the Saci but when seeing the sibling and
believing her as an easy target decided to take her instead. This
fact the kid learns from the Saci as he found his hat on the floor
and, by taking it, gains the word of the Saci that he will help him
find his sibling as much as he can as long as he have his hat
returned.
These two mythical characters are two of the best well-known
characters of Brazilian folklore, with their names being known
even by Brazilians who are not familiar to their stories. Hence,
4
389
For more information see http://unity3d.com/.
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
they will have a prominent recurring role along the game plot,
acting, respectively, as the main antagonist and a supporting
character that provides the player with information about the
game setting, controls or mechanics.
Following this introduction, the Saci will give the kid a small card
containing his basic information. Throughout the game, the kid
will collect similar info regarding the other myths featured in
“Folclórica”, while having such information delivered to him also
through the plot.
One of such instances happens immediately after this, as the kid is
taken to a parallel world where the myths live and is introduced to
the Boitatá who is distressed cause his many fiery eyes have been
loosed on the land and the Shepherding little black boy who has
been trying to calm him down and help him to look for them.
Through such passage the player learns from the myths
themselves who they are and what is their role and tales and some
of what is coming to pass in this word, which, as it is connected to
Brazil’s lands and history, also has influence on it.
The Cuca has been infuriated to have been forgotten by Brazilians
and reduced to a fairy tale and has begun to take action to prove
herself not only very real but also very powerful and dangerous,
resorting to series of different means to do so. Confronting the
Boitatá and scattering its eyes so it could set places aflame was
one of her deeds, as well as the newsfeeds of strange occurrences
over the country that the kid was reading on his smartphone at the
beginning of the game.
Figure 3 Male version of player’s avatar.
Art: Patrick Pereira.
Mythical game characters where chosen based on the game plot
and on their connections with the region of Brazil depicted by the
game level they appear on. Each myth shown in the game has its
background story explained to players through the plot and a more
detailed description that they can access in-game any time through
a specific characters’ menu.
Among the different materials we consulted to craft the
background for the mythical characters of the game, the most
valuable one was the work of Cascudo [9], author whose many
works (some dating back to more than 70 years ago) are to this
day among the most important collections regarding Brazil’s
culture and folklore. In respect to such characters, for the first
level of our game, these are:
•
Black face Ox: the Ox is, essentially, an amalgam from
different versions of the Bumba-meu-boi. All versions
of the tale talk about an ox killed by a slave to give its
tongue as food for his pregnant wife and later resurrect
by indigenous shamans, which resulted in a great party
throw by the slave’s master. His tale bears yet elements
of accounts of an accursed ox that always looked to be
angry. His figure is mostly know to Brazilian’s through
the child’s lullaby that, in a free translation, goes like
“Ox, ox, ox, black face ox, take this kid who is scared of
grimaces”. In-game, the ox will be roaming aimless,
driven by his angry. Besides the first level, he will be
featured in different parts of the game as a mix of
damage dealer and moving platform.
•
Carbuncle: there are several Carbuncles in literature all
of which are some sort of animal, like cats or more
commonly lizards, which have a gem over their head
able to grant wishes. Some accounts say they have a
pact with the devil and turn to beautiful women at night.
Others, that they willing give their gem to humble and
good-hearted people. By capturing a Carbuncle and
acquiring its gem one can be granted a wish, usually
connected to some kind of wealth. In Folclórica a
Carbuncle appears as a shy but helpful Non-Player
Character (NPC) that provides its gem to the player
after he has been freed.
•
The Charmed Ones: three beautiful sea nymphs that
inhabit an island in the south part of Brazil attracting
men and sinking ships with their sing. According to
legend, they halted this practice after one of them fell in
love with a sailor and took him and her sisters to under
the sea. One of these nymphs will get trapped among the
fiery eyes of the Boitatá use her voice to try to lure the
player to free her.
•
Curupira wild boars: the Curupira is a red-head dwarf
whose feet are turned backwards to avoid having his
The Shepherding little black boy has the ability to find that what
was lost, thus the kid agrees in helping them so that the Shepard
will help him find his sibling and for fear that she might get
trapped on a fire. And so the kid starts his journey to find the
Cuca and to get his sibling back; a journey that at the same time,
introduces him to characters of the Brazilian folklore and their
tales.
5.2 Characters and graphics
When considering the age range of the target audience and the
fact that Folclórica is conceived as a 2D platform game, we
decided by a mostly vivid and vibrant setting inspired by the
classic platform games of the 90’s as well as of more recent games
that seem to capture that feeling, like Number None, Inc.’s 2008
game Braid. A screen capture of Folclórica’s first level, inspired
by Braid and games alike, is shown on Figure 2.
Meanwhile, the player’s avatar, which will account for some
amount of customization, will draw inspiration mainly from
Nintendo’s A Boy and His Blob, which we believe draws a close
resemblance to a school kid and might aid students to identify
themselves with it. Folclórica player’s avatar is seen in Figure 3.
Figure 2 Screen capture of Folclórica’s 1st level. Source: screen
capture made by the authors.
390
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
In-game, the Saci has evaded the Cuca and stumbled on
the player, eventually agreeing to help him look for his
sibling, acting as a support NPC. Most notably rescuing
the player in his whirlwind whenever he is about to
“die”.
tracks being followed. A fierce protector of the woods,
he commands a herd of wild boars always riding the
biggest of them. In-game, his command over the herd
was broken and now the creatures run wild and mad
across the lands, causing all sorts of trouble and posing
significant danger to who comes too close to them.
•
•
Shepherding little black boy: a nameless slave boy of a
mean rancher who had the Virgin Mary for his
godmother. Twice the boy had lost the rancher’s herd
after falling asleep, exhausted from the beatings he
received. As punishment, the rancher let him to die,
naked on the top of an anthill. Later the rancher
returned to see if the ants had done his deed and found
the boy with no marks on his skin, standing near the
anthill with the Virgin Mary near. The virgin claimed
the boy was no longer part of this world, yet men were
said to see him at night, leading a herd on horseback as
he searched for whatever people had lost, as long as
they lit a candle for him that he could take to his
godmother’s altar. In-game the Shepherding will be
seen calming the Boitatá and telling the player of his
candles that can be used to look for the scattered eyes.
Boitatá: a giant snake, survivor of an inundation that
killed a huge number of animals. The snaked ate their
eyes and became as bright as fire, powered by the last
sun they had seen in life. The origin of the legend can
be tracked to the Will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon. Ingame, the Cuca was responsible for taking the eyes of
the Boitatá and scattered them, causing fires that will
affect both the world of the myths and of men (Brazil).
The player must gather then back in order to avoid fires,
helping the serpent and (maybe) his sibling.
With the exception of the Black face Ox all the myths selected for
the first level have very strong ties to the south region of Brazil
depicted by it. However, all over Brazil people are at least
acquaintance with the Black face Ox myth through its lullaby,
which strength’s its role as a recurring character throughout the
game. Nevertheless, Folclórica has two main recurring mythical
characters with much a bigger role to play.
•
•
Cuca: one of the main mythical characters of Brazilian
folklore, known for its lullaby that hastens children to
sleep or else they will be taken by her. In myth, the
Cuca is an evil witch, first depicted as an ugly old
woman and later as an anthropomorphic alligator that
steals and eats disobedient little children, a tale with
origins in Portuguese dragon legends. The Cuca will be
the game’s main antagonist, angry for Brazilians having
turned her into no more than a fairy tale villain. Evil she
might be, but not a fairy tale. She intends to prove how
real, powerful and dangerous she can be when enraged.
Saci: another of the main mythical characters of
Brazilian folklore, the Saci is a mischievous boy. He is
not evil though; his tricks have no meaning to harm
people, mostly causing annoying situations that are fun
to watch for the ones not involved in it. He is generally
described as a one legged black boy smoking a pipe and
wearing a red hat, which gives him his powers. Taking
his hat off and trapping him in a bottle is the only way
to stop him. He travels the land on whirlwinds and, if in
a good mood, may help people to look for lost things.
5.3 Connections to learning and motivation
We started section 3.2 by first highlighting the importance of
motivation for the learning process of students and the importance
that should be placed by schools in looking for ways to improve
motivation in their students due to the extreme consequences that
the lack of motivation might lead to.
That is to say that it is possible to enhance students’ motivation.
Often, the motivation for learning of each student results from the
convergence of one’s traits with factors acting mainly over the
classroom setting. Once this combination is processed by
students, the result may be a weak or distorted motivation, which
can be enhanced and optimized [5][3].
This is possible because every student has his or hers own set of
beliefs regarding what they are learning and what they believe
they might accomplish. Beliefs that they value in answer to their
individual interest on the task and the meaning they see in it
[30][5]. In other words it is possible to interfere in students’
motivation, with positive or negative effects, by interfering on
one’s belief that he or she can accomplish the task and giving a
significant meaning to why they should do so.
It is for this reason that we chose to tackle the lack of motivation
by focusing to bring the subject closer to their daily lives,
choosing a medium that is fairly common to the students outside
the boundaries of the school. Simultaneously bringing the subject
of the myths of Brazilian folklore closer to the reality of these
students and diminishing the gap between the teaching practice of
schools and the context of IS they are so used to.
Additionally, by choosing to create a game that deals with the
myths of Brazilian folklore brings yet another benefit directly tied
to Malone [26] and Malone and Lepper [27] guidelines, the
concept of Fantasy.
Like the above authors state in their works, Fantasy represents the
use of imagination to create circumstances uncommon to the daily
life of students. Using of attractive game elements such as
settings, characters and plot to instill emotional and affective
appeal to players, hence engaging them in the shown tasks and
nourishing their interest by these situations.
As it stands, Brazilian folklore vastly excels in this respect, having
no lack of fantastic themes and characters that take place in a wide
range of locations and that can be adapted to game settings. We
favor such potential in conjunction with game challenges that we
strive to balance in order to appeal to the Attention [20][21] of
most players, believing that either too easy or too hard challenges
are likely to ward players.
As Fantasy [26][27] also underlies the game plot, we seek to
translate the legends shown thus far to our game environment by
connecting them and creating a meaningful story from those
myths most cited traits and their better known places of
appearance, thus, inciting the Curiosity [26][27] of players.
This way, we link our game plot to the concept of Relevance
[20][21] as it is Curiosity that drives players to explore the game
environment and experiment with it, leading them to ponder the
391
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
gathered information and shape it in a way that it connects with
what they already know; in other words, learning from this
environment and their experimentation with it [22][23].
Additionally, as we have stated before, this experimentation will
also have influence on their Confidence [20][21].
More precisely, while players’ Curiosity pushes them to
experiment with the environment and to formulate and test
hypotheses in order to find a solution for the tasks they are faced
with, their Confidence will be strengthened or weakened in
response to their belief of if and how they can solve such tasks.
Thus, being directly linked to the Control [26][27] that the game
offers to players. Players’ Confidence is also subjected to their
Curiosity as it will prompt them to explore and interact with the
game environment and, in time, reveal to players’ what the game
allows them to do, what it does not and what can interfere with
their actions.
Figure 4 Characters tab on the Pause menu with no
information available to players. Source: screen capture made
by the authors.
In effect, the game’s plot is our main device to teach players about
the role each of these myths plays in Brazilian folklore and that
represents a part of our culture that is not given its due weight and
that seems to be neglected to an unimportant position in favor of
similar tales and aspects of foreign cultures.
Lastly, they will feel Satisfaction [20][21] from progressing over
the game’s settings and plot, which is to say, from being able to
grasp and use the game mechanics to solve the challenges they
have pondered on and move forward on the game settings. Hence,
being the result of the successful combination of all the previous
forms of interaction we listed in this section. Being yet somewhat
enhanced by the players’ game score. However, Satisfaction
should not be the only result of this combination.
Learning will result of it as well, being the outcome of the player
internalizing all the experiences he lived in-game through his
avatar, experiences that are in accordance to what is stated by the
Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) [22][23] and that will force
him to reflect and try to understand and cope to what was
presented to him.
Figure 5 Characters tab on the Pause menu with information
about the Cuca available to players. Source: screen capture
made by the authors.
Through the plot, we will put the player in contact with different
myths such as the ones listed on the previous section and show to
him/her many of their traits. An approach that starts with the plot
setting the player in a world where he will have a sibling kidnaped
by the Cuca that is in need of rescue.
In due time, throughout the opening sequence and the end of the
first level, the player will also come to meet the Saci and get his
collaboration in rescuing his sibling; will learn of the Boitatá’s,
Shepherding’s and Carbuncle’s abilities by themselves and come
himself to have some sort of access to them; and will have to deal
with the trickery of the singing of a Charmed One, a sea nymph
whose voice can attract men to their doom (see section 5.2).
Other than that, the players will also have access to more details
about the characters they encounter by collecting notes scattered
through the game settings that contain more precise information
about these myths based on their real world counterparts and how
this is shown in-game. Once collected, this information will
become accessible to players whenever they see fit to consult it,
which can be done through a “Characters” tab on the game’s
Pause menu. Screenshots of this tab are depicted in Figure 4,
Figure 5 and Figure 6.
Figure 6 Information about the Cuca being displayed to
players on the Characters tab of the Pause menu. Source:
screen capture made by the authors.
6. EVALUATION
FINDINGS
AND
CURRENT
For the game’s evaluation we will be using both the case control
class and the case study class. This will be done in the following
way.
The control group class will be subjected to their regular classes
with the teacher, which will consist in lectures about the Brazilian
folklore. For the first testing, such lectures will focus on the same
characters shown on the first level of Folclórica and the tales
commonly associated to them in Brazilian folklore.
The plan accorded with the groups’ teacher is that the lectures will
take one week of their class’ schedule, during which the control
group class will be exposed to this subject, interact with the game
and be evaluated by their teacher by means of an exam.
The interest here is to have a baseline group to use as standard in
order to verify the performance of students who had the subject
taught to them with the support of lectures, group tasks and tests
in conjunction with the game, so as to identify their impressions
392
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
regarding regular classes and the extra depth the game provides
about the subject by expanding their experiences with Brazilian
mythology.
show in Table 1. Only its first two columns will be seen by
students, who will attribute to each item a grade ranging from 1
(absolutely false) to 9 (absolutely true).
By doing that, we let the students “live” as part of the context of
Brazilian folklore, through their perception of the characters’
actions, behaviors and personalities, hence, bringing those myths
closer to the students’ reality.
Table 1 IMMS questionnaire for educational videogames.
Source: Huang et al [18].
No
This will allow us to gather and compare data from students who
were taught the subject with the support of a more classic
teaching-learning experience to those who will use Folclórica
exclusively as a learning tool. Through such comparison we
intend to take notice of these students perspective about how
would they prefer to learn, which of these ways they believe to be
more effective and which of them has a bigger impact on them.
1
In order for such comparison to take place the case study class
will also have to be subjected to a test created by their teacher.
However, the learning experience they will be subjected to will
differ from the first experience of the case control class.
5
2
3
4
6
7
The reason for that is that the first in-class contact of these
students with the subject will happen straight through the game.
While moving on the game environment, students will go through
the experiences we described in section 5.3 and learn about those
characters through those experimentations and the reflections they
imbued on them, which, as we stated before, is in accordance with
the foundations of the ELT [22][23] shown along section 3.1.
Due to our belief that, in order to promote learning the game must
be able to affect students motivation we also instilled in our game
the motivational guidelines and concepts seen in section 3.2,
which we connected to our game through the statements of section
5.3. However, in the same way that we must verify if there was
any improvement or decrease in students’ performance through
the use of our game, such difference should be viewed taking into
account if our game was able or not to imbue any motivation in
students.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
To this end, we resource to the Instructional Materials
Motivational Survey (IMMS), Keller’s [20][21] own tool for
asserting motivation in learning materials using is ARCS model
that consists of a 36 items questionnaire aiming to measure
motivation in an instruction material through the components of
the model.
Hence, our comparison will consist on a qualitative and
quantitative analysis. The quantitative analysis will consist on the
comparison of the grades of the exam subjected to both the
control and case study groups, while the qualitative aspect will
consist of the application of the IMMS questionnaire and an open
dialogue that will be conducted with both groups once they have
played Folclórica.
In that respect, the questionnaire will have its items answered by
students that have concluded the first level of the game as an
online form. The data collected from it will not only serve to
verify if the game was able or not to deliver motivation to
students, as it will also be a tool for future improvements of the
game and its next levels, as the authors and developers will know
directly through their target audience which aspects they should
attend to improve.
Here, we use the version of IMMS questionnaire adapted for
educational videogames found in Huang et al [18], which we
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
393
Item
When I first looked at the game, I had the
impression that it would be easy for me.
There was something interesting at the beginning
of the game that got my attention.
The game was more difficult to understand than I
would like for it to be.
After reading the introductory information, I felt
confident that I knew what I was supposed to
learn from the game.
Completing the exercises in the game gave me a
satisfying feeling of accomplishment.
It is clear to me how the content of the game is
related to things I already know.
The game had so much information that it was
hard to pick out and remember the important
points.
The interface design of the game is eye-catching.
There were examples that showed me how the
game could be important to some people in the
learning setting.
Completing activities in the game successfully
was important to me.
The quality of the writing in the game helped to
hold my attention.
The content of the game is so abstract that it was
hard to keep my attention on it.
As I worked on the game, I was confident that I
could learn the content.
I enjoyed the game so much that I would like to
know more about this topic.
The design of the game looks dry and
unappealing.
The content of the game is relevant to my
interests.
The way the information is arranged in the game
helped keep my attention.
There are explanations or examples of how people
use the knowledge in the game.
The activities in the game were too difficult.
The game has things that stimulated my curiosity.
I really enjoyed learning with the game.
The amount of repetition in the game caused me
to get bored sometimes.
The content and style of writing in the game
convey the impression that its content is worth
knowing.
I learned some things that were surprising or
unexpected with the game.
After working on the game for a while, I was
confident that I would be able to pass a test on the
content.
The game was not relevant to my needs because I
already knew most of it.
The wording of feedback after the exercises, or of
other comments in the game, helped me feel
rewarded for my effort.
The variety of reading passages, activities,
illustrations, etc., helped keep my attention on the
game.
The style of writing in the game is boring.
I could relate the content of the game to things I
Componen
t
Confidence
Attention
Confidence
Confidence
Satisfaction
Relevance
Confidence
Attention
Relevance
Relevance
Attention
Attention
Confidence
Satisfaction
Attention
Relevance
Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Attention
Satisfaction
Attention
Relevance
Attention
Confidence
Relevance
Satisfaction
Attention
Attention
Relevance
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
No
31
32
33
34
35
36
Item
have seen, done or thought about in my own life.
There are so many words on each game
screen/page that it is irritating.
If felt good to successfully complete the game.
The content in the game will be useful to me.
I could not really understand quite a bit of the
material in the game.
The good organization of the content in the game
helped me be confident that I would learn this
material.
It was a pleasure to work on such a well-designed
game.
In addition, the fact that their opinion about the game will be
taken into account in order to improve it has made the students
extremely interested about the game and its development, having
in several occasions asked their teacher about its current state of
development and schedule of testing. Thus highlighting their
readiness to take part in the production of media for their own use
and/or sharing among them.
Componen
t
Attention
Satisfaction
Relevance
Confidence
However, such encounter also highlighted more about these
youngsters’ perspectives on videogames than what we have first
considered. On their own account, their main source of contact
with the creatures of Brazilian myths have been the works of
Monteiro Lobato, an author that many of them claim to minimize
the role and place of African-Brazilians (such as many of them)
within society.
Confidence
Satisfaction
6.1 Students’ first impressions
In spite of Lobato’s vast contribution to Brazilian culture and the
disclosing of Brazilian folklore, making them accessible to a
much broader audience, one can notice the subtle underlining
prejudice to which some of his characters are addressed to, such
as the rural worker Jeca Tatu from his 1918 book Urupês and
Aunt Nastácia, the black housemaid from his well-known Sítio do
Pica-Pau Amarelo book series (1920-1947). [15]
In spite of the first testing of the game being currently under
schedule we have already met the students from both the case
control and the case study classes. The first encounter has
occurred on the first semester of 2015.
At the occasion, it became clear that many of the students held
mistrust for educational games based on their own previous
experiences with these media and see them as “boring” due to
their poor construction, emphasis on heavy in-game reading
material and virtual lack of care on keeping a level of fun to the
gaming experience.
For reasons such as these, the students stressed their desire for a
game plot that would set itself apart from such materials,
embracing a more diverse cultural approach that befits a strongly
mixed race country such as Brazil and setting back the Caucasian
hero stereotype they are so used to see in videogames, which they
expressed in their own words as “there are only white people
(protagonists) in games”.
Just alike, many of them had the wrong idea that commercial
games cannot (or do not) teach them anything, which is far from
true, with known more instances of the matter including the
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed game series and the strong factual
historical background that underlies its plot and Microsoft’s older
Age of Empires series, which heavily relies on a proper
management of resources in order to succeed.
This last claim strengthened our understanding for the need of at
least a minimal amount of customization for the main character of
the game, so they can best identify themselves with its
protagonist.
As expected due to the accounts of the teachers, it was possible to
observe a clear wider knowledge among students about foreigner
myths in contrast to national ones. Characters like Thor, Odin,
Zeus and Anubis number just a few names cited by students with
whom they had contact through different sorts of entertainment
material, such as books, movies and videogames.
7. CONCLUSIONS
With the work shown here, we aim to bring a contribution for the
better and diverse integration of ICT in classrooms by promoting
a media that is still seen with some stigma by schools.
We do that because we see such media as having a nearly
inherited ability to maintain people’s attention and interest,
providing virtual environments that are rich in information and
that require individuals to employ inductive reasoning in order to
understand them and use the resources they provide so as to
move forward [28][31][37]. That way, effectively pushing
individuals to transform gathered information into knowledge
[22][23].
A recurring game named by the students was Smite, a Multiplayer
Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game released last year by Hi-Rez
Studios in which players gather in groups to face each other, each
of them controlling an avatar representing a deity or hero of
cultures like Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Chinese and others.
This was an interesting note from students as it allowed us to draw
a quick first comparison with their current knowledge of similar
such characters on Brazilian folklore and mythology. Accounting
for the number of creatures, deities and their respective
backgrounds that could be named by students only a few of those
were Brazilian ones.
By enhancing these intrinsic traits of videogames with an
environment and plot built to provide students with information
about cultural aspects of Brazilian folklore, while working on
their commitment and eagerness to do so (their motivation), we
intend not only to improve students’ performance on classes
dealing with this subject but, more significantly, disclose to them
a part of their country’s culture that is often set aside in favor of
similar tales and settings from foreign cultures.
Even so, Brazilian myths named by students on the occasion were
given little background, with just their names being known by
them in almost every case; names that included the Saci, the
Headless-Mule, the Curupira and the Iara. In that sense, we see
our work as a contribution and, above all, an effort of appreciation
of the Brazilian culture that looks forward to set itself apart from a
though often observed within Brazilian society in its most diverse
aspects that “foreign is better”.
A goal that, as detailed along the previous sections, we aim to
achieve by letting students become a part of the environment
inhabited by the mythological characters that the game presents to
them, which will grant them a closer experience with these
characters and their tales, letting they “live” as part of their world
394
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
and observe their actions, behaviors and motivations in ways that
could hardly be achieved by others means than videogames.
Particularly, by doing that we expect students’ to better relate to
the shown information, enhancing their knowledge about an often
neglected part of Brazilian culture while aiding them to better
retain and appreciate this knowledge. A perspective that has led us
to pay special attention to the works of Malone [26], Malone and
Lepper [27], Keller [20][21], Kolb [22] and Kolb and Kolb [23]
along our research, for which we are very close to our first testing.
Perhaps more importantly, as section 6.1 might put in evidence,
we see the resulting game of this research as an attempt to bring
appreciation to a particular aspect of Brazilian culture that we
believe is often set aside by a society that has a well-established
preference of showing more value to whatever comes from outside
the country.
During our further developments of this research we intend to
validate the second and third levels of the game (representing,
respectively, the Central-West and North regions of Brazil) which
are currently under development and are expected to be ready for
testing during the first months of the next year. There are also
plans for building two additional levels for the game taking into
account the findings of the current game development and testing,
thus, encompassing the five geographic regions of Brazil in order
to better explore the country’s cultural diversity.
Moreover, we are currently discussing the adaptation of the game
plot of these additional game levels to approach the matter of
citizenship, a topic that fits the cultural aspect of the game and
that would expand its educational influence even further.
8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank all those who participated in our research.
This research was partially founded by CAPES Foundation,
Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília – DF 70040-020, Brazil
(Leonardo F. B. S. Carvalho, Scholarship from CAPES –
Proceeding No. 99999.010282/2014-09).
9. REFERENCES
[1] Anderson, E. F., McLoughlin, L., Liarokapis, F., Peters, C.,
Petridis, P. and Freitas, S. 2009. Serious Games in Cultural
Heritage. In State of Arts and Reports, Proceedings of the 10th
International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and
Cultural Heritage (VAST), M. Ashley and F. Liarokapis, Eds. Pp.
29–48, Eurographics Association, St Julians, Malta, Sep.
[2] Brasil. 2005. Ministério da Educação e Cultura. Diretrizes
Curriculares Nacionais para a Educação das Relações ÉtnicoRaciais e para o Ensino de História e Cultura Afrobrasileira e
Africana. Brasília: MEC.
[3] Brophy, J. 1983. Conceptualizing student motivation.
In Educational psychologist, 18, 3, Pp. 200-215.
[4] Boruchovitch, E., de Alencar, E. M. S., de Souza Fleith, D.
and da Fonseca, M. S. 2013. Motivação do aluno para aprender:
fatores inibidores segundo gestores e coordenadores
pedagógicos. ETD-Educação Temática Digital, São Paulo, 15, 3,
Pp. 425–442, set./dez.
[5] Bzuneck, J. A. 2009. A motivação do aluno: aspectos
introdutórios. In A Motivação do aluno: contribuições da
psicologia contemporânea, Bzuneck, J. A.; Boruchovitch, E.,
Eds. Pp. 9–36, Petrópolis: Vozes.
[6] _________. 2010. Como motivar os alunos: sugestões
práticas. In Motivação para aprender: Aplicações no contexto
educativo. Guimarães, S. E. R., Ed. Pp. 13–42, Petrópolis: Vozes.
[7] Carvalho, L. F. B S., Barone, D. A. C. and Bercht, M. 2014.
Disclosing myths of Brazilian folklore through motivational
games. Proceedings of the XIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Jogos e
Entretenimento Digital (SBGames 2014), Pp. 517 – 526. Porto
Alegre, Brazil, Nov.
[8] Carvalho, L. F. B S., Barone, D. A. C. and Bercht, M. 2014.
Explorando os Mitos Nacionais: contribuição ao aprendizado
pelo estímulo à motivação a partir dos Serious Games. Phd
midterm paper. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto
Alegre, Brazil, Pp. 96, Sep.
[9] Cascudo, L. C. 2013. Geografia dos mitos brasileiros.
Global Editora e Distribuidora Ltda, 4th edition.
[10] Castells, M. 2003. A Galáxia Internet: reflexões sobre a
Internet, negócios e a sociedade. Zahar.
[11] Coutinho, C. P. and Lisbôa, E. S. 2011. Sociedade da
informação, do conhecimento e da aprendizagem: desafios para
educação no século XXI. In Revista de Educação, Lisboa,
Portugal, 18, 1, Pp. 5–22, Jan/Jun.
[12] Crookall, D. 2010. Serious games, debriefing, and
simulation/gaming as a discipline. In Simulation & Gaming,
California, USA, 41, 6, Pp. 898–920, Dec. 2010.
[13] D’Angelo, F. 2014. Alunos do Brasil ficam em 38º em
ranking de 44 países. Metro. Porto Alegre, Brasil, Pp. 06, Apr. 02,
2014.
[14] do Canto Filho, A. B. et al. Objetos de aprendizagem no
apoio à aprendizagem de engenharia: explorando a motivação
extrínseca. In RENOTE, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 10, 3.
[15] Fernandes, A. O. and Ferreira, K. C. S. 2009. Estudos de
Mitologia Afro-Brasileira: orixás e cosmovisão negra contra a
intolerância e o preconceito. In Anagrama, Porto Alegre, Brazil,
3, 1, Pp. 1–11.
[16] G1. 2014. Game 'indie' brasileiro 'Aritana e a Pena da Harpia'
é lançado em disco. G1. São Paulo, Brazil, Jul. 10, 2014.
Available at <http://glo.bo/1xXWVjY>. Last access: Sep. 29,
2015.
[17] Hodgins, D. 2005. Male and female differences. In Focus, 1,
1, Pp. 6–7. Available at<http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/
myl/llog/Hodgins1.pdf>. Last access: May, 27, 2015.
[18] Huang, W., Huang, W. Y., Tschopp, J. 2010. Sustaining
iterative game playing processes in DGBL: The relationship
between motivational processing and outcome processing. In
Computers & Education, New York, USA, 55, 2, Pp. 789–797.
[19] Jorge, L. 2015. Figuras do folclore brasileiro viram
protagonistas de novo ‘game’. DIÁRIO do Amazonas. Manaus,
Brazil, Sep. 26, 2015. Available at <http://new.d24am.com/
noticias/tecnologia/figuras-folclore-brasileiro-viram-protago
nistas-novo-game/140649#>. Last access: Sep. 29, 2015.
[20] Keller, J. M. 1987a. Strategies for stimulating the motivation
to learn. In Performance & Instruction, Connecticut, USA, 26, 8,
Pp. 1–7, Oct.
[21] _________. 1987b. The systematic process of motivational
design. In Performance & Instruction, Connecticut, USA, 26, 9–
10, Pp. 1-8, Nov/Dec. 1987b.
395
Nuevas Ideas en Informática Educativa TISE 2015
[22] Kolb, D. A. 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the
source of learning and development, 2nd Ed. New Jersey: FT
Press.
[23] Kolb, A. Y. and Kolb, D. A. 2009. The Learning Way: Metacognitive Aspects of Experiential Learning. In Simulation &
Gaming, California, USA, 40, 3, Pp. 297–327, Jun.
[24] Landers, R. N., and Callan, R. C. 2011. Casual social games
as serious games: The psychology of gamification in
undergraduate education and employee training. In Serious games
and edutainment applications Ma, M., Oikonomou, A. and Jain,
L. C. (ORG). London: Springer, Pp. 399–423.
[25] Leardini, L. L. and Kok, G. 2012. Histórias, Lendas, Mitos
Brasileiros e Afro-Brasileiros na Educação Infantil: Um
Caminho Literário Rumo à Cultura Brasileira. Term paper.
Instituto Vera Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil, Pp. 85.
[26] Malone, T. W. 1980. What makes things fun to learn?
Heuristics for designing instructional computer games.
In Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSMALL symposium and the
first SIGPC symposium on Small systems. ACM, Pp. 162–169.
[27] Malone, T. W. and Lepper, M. R. 1987. Making learning
fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In Aptitude,
learning, and instruction, 3, 1987, Pp. 223–253.
[28] Margaryan, A., Littlejohn, A. and Vojt, G. 2011. Are digital
natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital
technologies. In Computers & Education, New York, USA, 56, 2,
Pp. 429-440, Feb.
[29] Moehlecke, S. 2012. O ensino médio e as novas diretrizes
curriculares nacionais: entre recorrências e novas. In Revista
Brasileira de Educação,17, 49, Pp. 39–58, Jan/Apr.
[30] Pintrich, P. R. and De Groot, E. V. 1990. Motivational and
self-regulated learning components of classroom academic
performance. In Journal of educational psychology, 82, 1, Pp. 33.
[31] Prensky, M. 2010. Não me atrapalhe, mãe – eu estou
aprendendo!. 1st Ed., São Paulo: Phorte.
[32] Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. 2000. Intrinsic and extrinsic
motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. In
Contemporary educational psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
v. 25, n. 1, p. 54–67, Jan.
[33] Salvador, C. C., Alemany, I. G., Martí, E., Majós, T. M.;
Mestres, M. M., Godi, J. O., Gallart, I. S. and Gimérez, E. V.
2000. Psicologia do ensino. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas Sul, Pp.
408.
[34] Santos, J. M. C. T. 2011. Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio:
entre a regulação da qualidade do Ensino Médio e o vestibular. In
Educar em Revista, Curitiba, 40, Pp. 195–205, Apr/Jun.
[35] Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P. R. and Meece, J. R. 2008.
Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications.
International ed. London: Pearson.
[36] Steinmayr, R., & Spinath, B. 2009. The importance of
motivation as a predictor of school achievement. In Learning and
Individual Differences, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 19, 1, Pp. 80–
90, Jan/Mar.
[37] Van Eck, R. 2006. Digital Game-Based Learning: It's not just
the Digital Natives who are restless. In EDUCAUSE Review, 41,
2, Pp. 16–30, Mar/Apr.
[38] Zambarda, P. 2013. Xilo mostra que é possível criar jogos de
qualidade inspirados na cultura nacional. TechTudo - A
Tecnologia Descomplicada. Globo.com, Jun. 12 2014. Available
at <http://glo.bo/1N916SQ>. Last access: Sep. 29, 2015.
[39] Zibas, D. ML. 2005. Refundar o Ensino Médio? Alguns
antecedentes e atuais desdobramentos das políticas dos anos de
1990. Educação e Sociedade, Campinas, v. 26, n. 92, p. 10671086, out.
396